DAVAO CITY, Philippines – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is now studying the proposal to increase the minimum wage for the Philippine National Police (PNP) to P50,000 ($1,080).

Duterte’s defeated running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, told reporters on Sunday, June 12, that he has submitted this proposal to Duterte and incoming PNP chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.

“Sinubmit na namin ‘to sa pangulo at incoming chief PNP para tingnan ang numbers. Next stop nito ay sa budget secretary,” Cayetano said on the sidelines of a PNP event in Davao City.

(We submitted this to the president and the incoming PNP chief so that they can look at the numbers. The next stop is the budget secretary.)

Cayetano said the P50,000 minimum wage will apply to policemen with the rank of Police Officer 1 (PO1). He said this amount includes the policeman’s base pay and allowance.

In the current set-up, a PO1 gets roughly P14,800 ($320) as his monthly base pay. A PO1’s salary, however, can reach up to P20,000 ($433) depending on his or her place of assignment.

During the campaign period, Duterte and Cayetano already pushed for increasing the salaries of policemen to a range of P75,000 to P100,000 ($1,624 to $2,166) in 3 years.

Cayetano earlier said higher wages will prevent policemen from being used by criminals bringing them.

“Their salaries need to be raised because two things will go away: crime and corruption. When there is no crime, there will be more investments, more business. Second, when there is no corruption, there will be more money for the government,” Cayetano said in January.

Outgoing Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, however, said he is apprehensive about this proposal because it needs to be sustainable in the long run. – Rappler.com

$1 = P46.16